The Noctua NH-U9 heatsink is the product
of collaboration Rascom GmbH and Taiwanese manufacturer Kolink International Corp. Under
the brand Noctua, the
companies have released a set of heatsinks optimized for use with quiet fans,
without restricting the underlying thermal performance of the heatsink. The
Noctua NH-U9 is a 128mm tall heatsink whose aluminum fins are studded
with four copper heatpipes. The NH-U9 comes with all the necessary
mounting hardware you'll need for Intel or AMD processors, but no fans are
included. Mounting clips will allow users to install a 92mm or 80mm fan on
either side of the unit if
they desire, but we found a single fan more than sufficient for the task at hand. The 38 nickel-plated aluminum cooling fins are connected by four copper heat pipes to a copper base plate that pushes the overall weight to 570grams.

The Noctua NH-U9 is a little bulky for
smaller cases, so we'd suggest measuring first to ensure clearance. All joints
between the copper heat pipes and base are soldered for the lowest possible
thermal resistance, however RoHS compliance is not stated per 2002/95/EU.

Noctua state: "Owners of Noctua CPU coolers can obtain
the Noctua NM-AM4 SecuFirm2 Mounting-Kit free of charge via this form. A proof of purchase (electronic
version, photo or scan of the invoice) of both a Noctua CPU cooler
and either a socket AM4 mainboard or socket AM4 CPU are required. There is a dedicated
upgrade kit (NM-AM4-UxS) available for NH-U14S, NH-U12S and NH-U9S"

For more details, heatsink exceptions and
a complete list of incompatible coolers, see here.

The Noctua NH-U9 comes with a variety of brackets for installing
the heatsink onto different processor sockets, but the gist is that a set of plates are screwed into the copper
base, the backplate positioned behind the motherboard, then everything is screwed down onto
the CPU.

The fan is the last component to be
attached, and because Noctua sell the NH-U9 without one, you'll need to source out a 90mm or
80mm fan of your own. If you try and install the heatsink with the fan in place
you'll quickly discover that it blocks the screws for the heatsink mounting
hardware... which makes the whole process a little annoying if the computer case
is tight.

The Noctua NH-U9 is being tested on an
AMD Athlon64 K8 compatible synthetic temperature test platform in this review.
We picked out the necessary brackets with the aide of the multi-language manual, and set about
the installation task in the course of a few minutes.

Getting the large Noctua NH-U9 into position on the
CPU die and affixed with the spring-tensioned screws wasn't too difficult. It was
just a matter of attaching the clear rubber anti-vibration strips to the
back vertical edges of a 92mm fan
and locking that into place with the included wire clips.

The important bit is to stick on the anti-vibration
strips to the rear of the fan first, or you'll quickly find yourself repeating
steps. Leaving the strips out is not advisable unless you like the sound of
rattling metal bits. The fan is oriented such that air
blows through the fins of the Noctua NH-U9 heatsink, so hot air should be blowing
towards the rear or top of an actual PC case.

Retroactive Socket 1366 Intel Core i7 Processor Compatibility

One of the nice aspects of this heatsink is that Noctua has released a new mounting kit to make it compatible with Intel's Core i7 socket 1366 processor! The Noctua SecuFirm2 mounting kit works with any Noctua CPU heatsink going back to 2005, and best of all it's available for free from Noctua's website. Socket 1366
processors use slightly wider spaced motherboard mounting holes for
heatsinks to attach to - 80mm vs. 72mm for LGA775 chips - so existing socket 775
brackets are not compatible with this new Intel CPU in spite of the fact the
heatsink is probably still well suited.

The Noctua SecuFirm2
bracket (shown above) uses spring tensioned screws to securely mount the Noctua
heatsink on the new Core i7 processors, and ensures optimal contact pressure
thanks to identical Z-height between LGA775 and LGA1366 CPU formfactors.
Frostytech will be testing this Noctua heatsink shortly to see how it performs
with socket 1366 processor thermal demands... stay tuned!

FrostyTech's K8 Test Methodology is outlined in detail
here if you care to know what
equipment is used, and the parameters under which the tests are
conducted. Now let's move forward and take a closer look at this heatsink, its acoustic
characteristics, and of course it performance in the thermal tests!